The let's track the remakes thread.

[Cthulhu]

Here's an idea:

JUST RUN THESE MOVIES IN THE THEATRES AGAIN!


Most of rights are still in the hands of the same companies, yes?

I was thinking just the same thing!
Why remake the film? Why do you ruin every aspect of it? Just run them again in theaters! I'd go see them.

[Cthulhu]

Here's an idea:

JUST RUN THESE MOVIES IN THE THEATRES AGAIN!


Most of rights are still in the hands of the same companies, yes?

Film-hipsters (and try to tell me the internet hasn't made fertile ground for more of them) will pack theatres at midnight to see a classic on a big screen. Tap into that already! Promote it right and you can even build additional interest for a remake rather than resentment.

As much as we might be against remakes on some loose aesthetic principal, some remakes ARE BETTER (compare ‘the hills have eyes’ and try to tell me the original was better), some are just taken in such a different direction that they can't be compared, and really, filmmaking today is so different from filmmaking a few decades ago that it's almost akin to the argument against turning books into movies.

I think more books should be turned into movies. There's lots of good material out there to work with and seeing as producers and writers are out of ideas, it makes sense. I don't like it all because I hate CGI with a passion for a start. They always use really dumb people from souless, vapid tv shows and the original films should be able to stand alone. The reason I hate remakes the most tho', is because people (kids in general) think that these are geniunely "new" concepts and characters. Like my nephew thinks transformers were only created the year that CGI fest came out.

That's a good idea. But they should stay close to the original material. I mean think of Running man. It was good, cheesy fun, but it had nothing to do with the book.

[Niolani]

I think more books should be turned into movies. There's lots of good material out there to work with and seeing as producers and writers are out of ideas, it makes sense. I don't like it all because I hate CGI with a passion for a start. They always use really dumb people from souless, vapid tv shows and the original films should be able to stand alone. The reason I hate remakes the most tho', is because people (kids in general) think that these are geniunely "new" concepts and characters. Like my nephew thinks transformers were only created the year that CGI fest came out.

I agree. Some books would make great movies, like Christopher Moore's work, for example. 

[the master]

Here's an idea:

JUST RUN THESE MOVIES IN THE THEATRES AGAIN!


Most of rights are still in the hands of the same companies, yes?

I was thinking just the same thing!
Why remake the film? Why do you ruin every aspect of it? Just run them again in theaters! I'd go see them.

yes i agree if a theather near me started showing classic horror films id be there every day

[Joe the Destroyer]

Rocky Horror remake?

No no no no NOOO!

That's almost as depressing as the idea of a Suspiria remake.  Grr!

[Yaddo 42]

For the most part the recent spate of remakes have sucked, but I just have to remember that Hollywood has always been remaking old films and doing new adaptations of books.

The version of Brewster's Millions with Richard Pryor and John candy some of us remember from the 80s was IIRC the seventh version of that story. I've only seen one other of them.

The Four Feathers has been adapted from the source novel about as many times. Footage from the acclaimed version from 1939 was even used in a remake in the 50s by the Korda Bros. who made it.

John Barrymore starred in two films based on Moby Dick in the silent era. I don't either one was supposed to be faithful to the original, in one Ahab was a noble dashing hero even.

John Wayne starred in and Howard Hawks directed two films, El Dorado & Rio Lobo that were remakes of their beloved film Rio Bravo. Hawks spent most of his later film directing career recycling ideas, plot elements, and often dialogue. They got blander with each succeeding version, but I find the original overrated, YMMV.

So it's not anything new, I wish they would adapt more books also, but remakes are just a fact of life with the movies.

Personally, I wish they would remake films that just missed the mark of being great rather than tinkering with classic. Death Race was so cookie cutter they could have dropped the Frankenstein and Machine Gun Joe connections and called the movie somehting else. They certain defanged the dark satire of the original; and they were even squimish about showing violence to the female "navigators".

My vote for a remake is the Michael Caine/Mike Hodges diamond in the rough Pulp, the plot sounds like perfect material for a Charlie Kaufman-esque makeover.

[Alex]

15 years later, I am not sure it would be possible to track all the remakes.